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Marietta

@mariettan.bsky.social

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Reposted by Marietta

Mark Joseph Stern

@mjsdc.bsky.social

For those asking whether the Trump administration will comply—Judge Ali has already directed the government to notify all affected groups of their rights and file a report in five days explaining how they are complying with the rest of his order. It’s safe to say he is serious about enforcement.

February 14, 2025 at 4:00 AM

Reposted by Marietta

Mark Joseph Stern

@mjsdc.bsky.social

A huge decision from Judge Amir Ali, meticulously reasoned and utterly scathing, finding that Trump’s foreign aid freeze is almost certainly an illegal and arbitrary abuse of power. He orders the immediate restoration of all international assistance. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

Consistent with the reasoning above, it is hereby ORDERED that Defendants Marco
Rubio, Peter Marocco, Russell Vought, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for
International Development, and the Office of Management and Budget (the "Restrained
Defendants") and their agents are temporarily enjoined from enforcing or giving effect to Sections
1, 5, 7, 8, and 9 of Dep't of State, Memorandum, 25 STATE 6828 (Jan. 24, 2025) and any other
directives that implement Sections 3(a) and 3(c) of Executive Order Number 14169, "Reevaluating
and Realigning United States Foreign Aid" (Jan. 20, 2025), including by:
• suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing the obligation or disbursement appropriated foreign-assistance funds in connection with any contracts, grants, cooperative
agreements, loans, or other federal foreign assistance award that was in existence as of
January 19, 2025; or
• issuing, implementing, enforcing, or otherwise giving effect to terminations, suspensions, or stop-work orders in connection with any contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, loans, or other federal foreign assistance award that was in existence as of January 19, 2025.

It is further hereby ORDERED that nothing in this order shall prohibit the Restrained
Defendants from enforcing the terms of contracts or grants.
It is further hereby ORDERED that the Restrained Defendants shall take all steps necessary to effectuate this order and shall provide written notice of this order to all recipients of
existing contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements for foreign assistance.
It is further hereby ORDERED that the Restrained Defendants shall file a status report by
February 18, 2025, apprising the Court of the status of their compliance with this order, including by providing a copy of the written notice described above.
The parties shall meet and confer and file a joint status report by February 14, 2025, at 5:00
p.m. proposing an expedited preliminary injunction briefing schedule.
AMIR H. ALI
United States District Judge

February 14, 2025 at 3:46 AM

Reposted by Marietta

Mark Joseph Stern

@mjsdc.bsky.social

Judge Ali vividly describes some of the horrific consequences of Trump’s blanket foreign aid freeze, then holds that it was likely arbitrary and capricious for the administration to ignore these appalling (and entirely foreseeable) harms when imposing the policy. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

Discussion
At least at this early stage, the Court finds Plaintiffs have met their burden for temporary,
emergency relief, although not with the breadth they initially or subsequently proposed.
The Court begins with irreparable harm, given the scale of the disruption Plaintiffs have described. Plaintiffs attest Defendants' blanket suspension of congressionally appropriated funds
has caused them immense financial harm and has, in many cases, forced them to significantly cut
down on staff or otherwise reduce core operations. Plaintiffs do not assert this harm based upon
expectations of receiving future grants or aid; they do so upon expectations set in existing contracts
with the respective agencies. To give just a few examples from the record:
• One plaintiff, a large investigative journalism organization, has agreements with USAID and the State Department that constitute 38% of its budget, which supports investigations into corruption, sanction violations, and other wrongdoing. AIDS Vaccine, ECF No. 13-4 11 2, 6-7, 9. Due to the suspension of appropriated funding and stop-work orders received as a result, the organization has been forced to cut 43 of 199 staff members, with most remaining being moved to a shorter work week.
Id. 1 12. The organization has had to cancel events, cut travel for reporting, and freeze new equipment purchases. Id. The organization attests that the disruption will continue absent relief. Id. 1 13.
• A nonprofit plaintiff focused on protecting refugees and asylum seekers has had to lay off 535 staff members since receiving termination notices for multiple grants.
Glob. Health, ECF No. 7-3 11 3-4, 13. It has been forced to shutter program offices and defer payments to vendors. Id. 1 21.

Another plaintiff representing small businesses across all sectors attests that the suspension included USAID failing to pay its member organizations for months of unpaid invoices. Glob. Health, ECF No. 7-2 1 8. This has forced small businesses to furlough "most U.S. national staff in home offices and on contracts, and terminate foreign national staff or risk keeping them and being uncertain of payments under stop work orders." Id. 4 10.
• Another plaintiff focused on addressing the global HIV/AIDS epidemic has already been forced to lay off seven employees and will lay off ten more over the next month if the suspension of appropriated foreign aid continues. AIDS Vaccine, ECF
No. 13-2 1 12.
Other plaintiffs have described how the blanket suspension of funds has undermined their
core missions and jeopardized vital services to vulnerable populations. For example:
• One plaintiff asserts that the suspension of appropriated foreign aid has disrupted critical health programs, including maternal and child health programs and infectious disease prevention efforts administered by its member organizations.
Glob. Health, ECF No. 7-1 1 8. One of those member organizations reports that a $20 million project to support the development of hospital accreditation in Cambodia has been suspended. Id. Another reports that a stop-work order has disrupted a total of $4 million in funding for American Schools and Hospitals Abroad grants in Nepal and Vietnam. Id. The plaintiff organization attests that the suspension of appropriated foreign aid funding "is an existential threat to [its] members and their life-saving work." Id. I 11.
• Another plaintiff reports that it can no longer fund shelters for minors in Central America trying to escape recruitment into criminal gangs. Glob. Health, ECF No.
7-7 9 10.
• A different plaintiff explains that it has abruptly stopped providing medical services for hundreds of adolescents and young students in need in Bangladesh. Glob.
Health, ECF No. 7-8 9

February 14, 2025 at 3:54 AM

Marietta

@mariettan.bsky.social

@barackobama1961.bsky.social what can you do help us in the middle of this crisis? How can we stop the destruction of our institutions and the draining of the treasury?

February 5, 2025 at 8:56 AM